Our weekly blog on the New Orleans fine dining scene

Kids' stuff

Lunch at Liberty’s Kitchen involves a special kind of lagniappe –– diners here don’t just get a good meal; they are also helping at-risk youth. A social enterprise dedicated to providing youths with training, education and marketable skills, Liberty’s Kitchen operates a coffee shop and a café open for breakfast and lunch. For breakfast, options include pastries made from scratch and baked fresh on site. Try the shortbread biscuit with jam. For lunch, a variety of plate specials and sandwiches are offered, including a great pulled pork on a kaiser roll with coleslaw and TABASCO barbecue sauce.

Students at Liberty’s Kitchen receive classroom instruction, on-the-job training, case management and job placement services. The skills they learn help them to achieve self-sufficiency and a sense of purpose. They are located at 422 1/2 S. Broad near the Courthouse. To learn more about Liberty’s Kitchen, its food (which involves catering) and the services it provides, visit www.libertyskitchen.org.

Edible Schoolyard

Looking for a different way to commemorate the fourth anniversary of “The Storm”? Slow-food lovers and others wanting a fresh perspective on life after Katrina can gather at The Savvy Gourmet on Magazine Street this Saturday, Aug. 29, for the premier of the film Nourishing the Kids of Katrina: The Edible Schoolyard by filmmaker Robert Lee Grant.

The 40-minute documentary tracks the progress of the Edible Schoolyard project at Samuel J. Green charter school on Valence Street, where students work with teachers and visiting chefs to experience the full cycle of farm-to-table (well, garden-to-table) cooking with the produce they grow in their own on-site gardens. The program, spearheaded by Alice Waters of Chez Panisse fame, helps foment the sense of accomplishment that comes with raising good things to eat while at the same time instilling healthier eating habits. The film rolls at 8 p.m., followed by a reception. For more info, visit www.esynola.org.

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Our weekly blog on the New Orleans fine dining scene

about

Robert D. Peyton was born at Ochsner Hospital and, apart from four years in Tennessee for college and three years in Baton Rouge for law school, has lived here his entire life. He is a strong believer in the importance of food to our local culture and in the importance of our local food culture, generally. He has practiced law since 1994, and began writing about food on his website, www.appetites.us, in 1999. He mainly wrote about partying that year, obviously.

In 2006, New Orleans Magazine named Appetites the best food blog in New Orleans. The choice was made relatively easy due to the fact that Appetites was, at the time, the only food blog in New Orleans.

He began writing the Restaurant Insider column for New Orleans Magazine in 2007 and has been published inSt. Charles Avenue, Louisiana Life and New Orleans Homes and Lifestyles magazines. He is the only person he knows personally who has been interviewed in GQ magazine, albeit for calling Alan Richman a nasty name. He is not proud of that, incidentally. (Yes, he is.)

Robert’s maternal grandmother is responsible for his love of good food, and he has never since had fried chicken or homemade biscuits as good as hers. He developed his curiosity about restaurant cooking in part from the venerable PBS cooking show "Great Chefs" and has an extensive collection of cookbooks, many of which do not require coloring, and some of which have not been defaced.

Robert lives in Mid-City with his wife Eve and their three children, and is fond of receiving comments and emails. Please humor him.